Yemeni President Ali Adbulla Saleh is adamantly insisting that he will receive medical treatment in the United States for his war wounds. President Obama’s decision to allow or reject Saleh will either anger millions or send recruits directly to Al Qaeda.

Now Saleh is demanding medical attention in the United States, cornering the United States into a lose-lose situation.

If the government allows the tyrant to receive medical treatment this will be a stunning blow to the Arab Spring. Saleh has killed nearly two thousand of protesters and soldiers fighting for a more honest government. By providing medical treatment, rather than arresting, Saleh the United States is condoning his actions. Just allowing him into the country communicates to the world that America is okay with those who orchestrate genocide. The revolutionaries, American peace activists, and American Muslim community would all be outraged. These groups are gaining more power every year, while doing good, it would be disastrous to take this humanitarian route.

However, America also is endangered if Obama blocks Saleh’s visit.

American investment in the Arabian Peninsula is critical to our national security. Al Qaeda splinter cells have nested and flourished in Yemen during this last year of strife while the separatist Houthis are forming a small nation-state in northern Yemen. The country is the very definition of destabilized.

If America rejects Saleh it aggravates the country. Loyalists across Yemen will be aggravated by their president’s rejects. Al Qaeda will utilize the incident for recruiting. After the rejection many Yemenis will have a lot of undirected anger at the Americans. Who better than Al Qaeda to take advantage of anti-American sentiments.

Like I said, this is a lose-lose situation: either Obama antagonizes the Muslim world or arms Al Qaeda.

This microcosm of the results of the Arab Spring reflects the part the Western World will play after the tyrants from Bahrain to Syria are cast out. Governments in exile, royal families, and other unwanted pre-Arab Spring structures will flee to Europe and America for safety. This incident displays the question: should we take in butchers while angering own citizens or reject killers and build a more fearsome terrorist threat. There are no easy answers.

Personally, I believe all dictators of genocide should have access to medical treatments, such as electric chairs and firing squads.

The Arab Spring is a double-edged sword: on one hand it lays the groundwork for democracy in the Middle East while in other regions untraceable terrorism is proliferated. This dark threat is Terrorism 2.0.

These arrests are notable because these cells never trained with or contacted Al Qaeda. The only linking thread between the two is their terrifying ideology. The zeitgeist of terrorist threat has become more nebulous as more independent cells threaten international stability.

Who Are These Independent Terrorists?

They are the foot soldiers of Terrorism 2.0.

Regardless of where new terrorists crop up all recruits have several similar characteristics. First, they are indignant and horrified by perceived Western aggressions against Islam. Second, economic, political, and social woes are largely attributed to the “Western menace.” Finally, converts join with fanatic groups to carry out plots of death and destruction. That is what makes them terrorists.

Al Qaeda previously scooped up these radicals, crafting them into walking bombs. That was Terrorism 1.0; today we live in a brave new world. After a decade of full-fledged war against Al Qaeda new converts now have to train themselves because Al Qaeda is too weak to train them. Members of Terrorism 2.0 plot in Internet forums and work independently from any central organization.

New terrorists have little training, but they are hard to pick out of the larger population. Al Qaeda is now more of a social movement than a structure organization. These independent terrorists are just well publicized guerrillas. Regardless, they are still a notable threat.

Is Islam a Religion For Terrorists?

No.

Islam is inherently a good and ethical religion. For example, one of the core values Islam stresses alms giving. Islamic priests preach the same moral qualities that their Christian counterparts do. The only major distinction between the religions is that Islam believes in religious prophets after Jesus, culminating with Muhammad, and Christians do not. The majority of followers of the Islamic faith, Muslims, do not subscribe to any part of the extremist philosophy that has made Islam infamous.

Many uneducated critics point to the term of Jihad to justify contempt of Muslims. Jihad not a reason to hate Islam, instead it is a core justification behind why the faith is a good. This term has many definitions, ranging from a tough internal struggle to a secular war in the defense of Islam. At its heart, Jihad is the goal of every Muslims to aspire to do the right thing despite external coercion and internal desires. This is the same value taught to kindergarteners. There is nothing inherently threatening about Jihads.

How Should We View Terrorism 2.0?

The independent terrorists are the TEA Party of the Middle East.

Both are simply religious fanatics acting on rampant bigotry. For example, both share anti-Semitic targets and religiously conservative methodologies. Only the specific religion of the two is different; the TEA Party has Christianity while the Muslim terrorists have Islam. Both faiths are equally dangerous in these wrong hands.

Only once Jihad is polarized to the point of suicide bombings does it become dangerous. Of course, Christianity is also dangerous once it has been weaponized by the TEA Party and fired upon minorities, such as the homosexual population.

Like this:

General Mansur Al-Turki, spokesperson of Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry of Security, announced at a press conference that over the last eight months that Saudi Arabia has captured and imprisoned 149 sleeper cell militants. They may be the largest personal lost Al Qaeda has suffered since America invaded Afghanistan.

Who and What was Captured?

There were nineteen sleeper cells who were captured; ten were independent sleeper cells, a four cell group, a three cell group, and a two cell group.

The independents generally had closer ties directly to Osama Bin Ladin and the Yemen Branch of Al Qaeda, better known as AQAP. These cells focused primarily on manufacturer explosives, distributing those explosives, and training militants in the construction of bombs. Their bombs were going to be involved in planned attacks on numerous security and military facilities across Saudi Arabia. The majority of their recruits were young male teenagers, on holy pilgrimages to Mecca. They were militarized and radicalized by the extremist ideology of Al Qaeda. Boys like these wayward youth make of the majority of the soldiers that fight for branches of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen.

The largest group of had four cells and forty-one terrorists. They had numerous ties to AQAP in Yemen; the spokesperson announced they had terrorism plots in the advanced stages. The terrorists focused on targeting security officers and security facilities like checkpoints and police stations. This high coordinated and very advanced branch of Al Qaeda was captured with a small arsenal of weapons, mostly AK-47’s and RPGs, and dozens of laptops. It is speculated that this group posed the largest threat to the stability of the Saudi Arabian government.

The second largest group had three cells and twenty-four terrorists. Chiefly they planned to target military complexes such as air strips and small military bases. They also had planned to assassinate key personal in the high levels of government and the media, both domestic and international. They targeted journalists, hoping to eliminate non Al Qaeda oriented opinions in Saudi Arabia, posing the largest known threat to the media in the Middle East.

The smallest coordinated group had only two cells and sixteen members. Unlike the other seventeen cells these terrorists focused on financially funding other branches of Al Qaeda. They helped quarterback the gathering of 2.24 million Saudi riyals, worth roughly $600,00 US dollars. These funds were to be used to arm and support the militants in Yemen and Somalia. Funds were gathered by the terrorists; they deceived donors, claiming that the funds would go to help Muslims in poor countries.

What Affects Will this Have on Al Qaeda?

Capturing nearly a hundred and fifty militants will severely injure Al Qaeda on the Arabian peninsula and may lead to more exposed sleeper cells internationally. Less than ten thousands men make up the total forces of Al Qaeda, perhaps as low as five thousand. By capturing a hundred and fifty terrorists Saudi Arabia has imprisoned as much as 3% of the total man power of Al Qaeda, an impressive number that rivals the total number the America has captured in its lengthy campaign in Afghanistan.

Mansur Al-Turki stated that he had already informed Interpol and Yemen Interior Security of numerous sleeper cells outside the borders of Saudi Arabia. Some of the captured terrorists were African, hinting that they discovered cells in Somalia; others were described as South Asian, so this would probably lead to exposure of cells in Indonesia, the single largest Muslin country. Capturing these men will lead to uncovering additional of sleeper cells throughout the world, twisting the dagger in th heart of Al Qaeda.

What Have We Learned About Al Qaeda?

We have gained valuable knowledge about the radical ideology of AQAP’s branch of Al Qaeda. Mansur Al-Turki announced that his officers had discovered a unified set of codes that outlines the direction AQAP will go in during the future. He stated they are actively,

-Publishing takfirist ideology*

-Facilitating the transfer of recruiting cells to troubled regions

-Carrying out criminal operations that aim to spread chaos around the world

-Destabilizing security in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the USA

-Raising funds to support Al Qaeda, both at home and abroad

(* Takfirist ideology is a radical Al Qaeda and Taliban creed that has moves away from traditional Muslim beliefs and openly encouraged terrorism. It is denoucned by the vast majority of Muslims.)

While this initial finding may appear worthless, addition information coupled with this known ideology can help authorities locate where future terrorists activities will take place. This finding may someday save innocent lives.

An addition there was evidence supporting that Al Qaeda is moving towards further isolating the sleeper cells. Up until this point they have favored groups of sleepers cells, as many as ten connected cells. The large number of cells made it easier for each group to act effectively and independently, while it did threaten security. This new system means that each job is further compartmentalized, breaching one cell will not bring down an entire operation like it did in this latest incident. Authorities will have to capture coordinators, men who organize large groups of cells and start new ones, in order to find large numbers of cells. This gives the individual cells more security and more independence while limiting their power. This will lead to numerous ineffective smaller terrorism events internationally, there will be more attacks but they will each do far less damage.

Questions to Ask our Allies:

Of the 149 militants there was only one women, who was imprisoned for posting “Al Qaeda Ideology” on the internet. She has recently been released into the custody of her family. This is not unheard of, there have been precedents of so-called terrorists being released into the custody of their families. On follow up interviews these alleged terrorists generally only had tenuous links to Al Qaeda at best, some were swindled into supporting terrorism while others were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. In some circumstances these “terrorists” were almost certainly imprisoned so that the government could gain leverage over important unruly subjects. She was convicted of posting “Al Qaeda Ideology” on the Internet, but there has been no evidence to support this and they later released her after a short scare.

America and the European Union should congratulate and support Saudi Arabia in their sleeper cell bust, however they must also recognize that these numbers might be inflated with political prisoners. Saudi Arabia has a checkered past concerning political prisoners, they have done it in the past but recently they have either stopped the illegal incarceration of innocents or have gotten better at covering it up.

America and the European Union should help Saudi Arabia, it is the best way to eliminate the real terrorists, but they also must pressure Saudi Arabia to stop using the threat of terrorism to eliminate political opponents of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, who currently rules Saudi Arabia. Stabilization of the Middle East, by eliminating unethical practices, is the best way to defeat Al Qaeda, who public support just to survive. Destroy that support and Al Qaeda will be crushed under the wrath of the common man.